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#Iti J>outl) Ucaflct^. 

Washington's Birthday, 1885. 



The Character of Washington. 

Fro7n the Oration of Hon. Robert d- Winthi'Op at the laying of the corner-stone 
of the iVational Monument to Washington, July -^, 1848. 



In the whole history of the world it may be doubted whether any 
man can be found, who has exerted a more controlling influence over 
men and over events than George Washington. To what did he owe 
that influence? How did he win, how did he wield, that magic power, 
that majestic authority, over the minds and hearts of his countrymen 
and of mankind? In what did the power of Washington consist? 

It was not the power of vast learning or varied acquirements. He 
made no pretensions to scholarship, and had no opportunity for exten- 
sive reading. 

It was not the power of sparkling wit or glowing rhetoric. Though 
long associated with deliberative bodies, he never made a set speech 
in his life, nor ever mingled in a stormy debate. 

It was not the power of personal fascination. There was little 
about him of that gracious affability which sometimes lends such 
resistless attraction to men of commanding position. His august 
presence inspired more of awe than of affection,- and his friends, 
numerous and devoted as they were, were bound to him rather by ties 
of respect than of love. 

It was not the power of a daring and desperate spirit of heroic 
adventure. "If I ever said so," replied Washington, when asked 
whether he had said that there was something charming in the sound 
of a whistling bullet; "if I ever said so, it was when I was young." 
He had no passion for mere exploits. He sought no bubble reputa- 
tion in the cannon's mouth. With a courage never questioned, and 
equal to every exigency, he had yet " a wisdom which did guide his 
valor to act in safety."' 

Invvhat, then, did the power of Washington consist? When Pat- 



• 11 

rick Henry returned home from the first Continental Congress, and 
was asked who was the greatest man in that body, he replied: "If 
you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is the great- 
est orator ; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, 
Colonel Washington is by far the greatest man on that floor." 

When, fifteen years earlier, Washington, at the close of the French 
War, took his seat for the first time in the House of Burgesses of 
Virginia, and a vote of thanks was presented to him for his military 
services to the Colony, his hesitation and embarrassment were relieved 
by the speaker, who said, "Sit down, Mr. Washington, your modesty 
equals your valor ; and that surpasses the power of any language that 
I possess," 

But it was not solid information, or sound judgment, or even that 
rare combination of surpassing modesty and valor, great as these 
qualities are, which gave Washington such a hold on the regard, 
respect, and confidence of the American people. I hazard nothing in 
saying that it was the high moral element of his character which im- 
parted to it its preponderating force. His incorruptible honesty, his 
uncompromising truth, his devout reliance on God, the purity of his 
life, the scrupulousness of his conscience, the disinterestedness of 
his purposes, his humanity, generosity, and justice — these were the 
ingredients which, blending harmoniously with solid information and 
sound judgment and a valor only equalled by his modesty, made up a 
character to which the world may be fearlessly challenged for a 
parallel. 

" Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, 
conscience^'' was one of a series of maxims which Washington framed 
or copied for his own use when a boy. His rigid adherence to princi- 
ple, his steadfast discharge of duty, his utter abandonment of self, his 
unreserved devotion to whatever interests were committed to his care, 
attest the more than vestal vigilance with which he observed that 
maxi.m. He kept alive that spark. He made it shine before men. 
He kindled it into a flame which illumined his whole life. No occa- 
sion was so momentous, no circumstances were so minute, as to 
absolve him from following its guiding ray. The marginal explanation 
in his account book, in regard to the expenses of his wife's annual 
visit to the camp during the Revolutionary War, with his passing 
allusion to the "self-denial" which the exigencies of his country had 



cost him, furnishes a charming illustration of his habitual exactness. 
The fact that every barrel of flour which bore the brand of "George 
Washington, Mount Vernon," was exempted from the customary 
inspection in the West India ports — that name being regarded as an 
ample guaranty of the quality and quantity of any article to which it 
was affixed — supplies a not less striking proof that his exactness was 
everywhere understood. 

Everybody saw that Washington sought nothing for himself. 
Everybody knew that he sacrificed nothing to personal or to party 
ends. Hence, the mighty influence, the matchless sway, which he 
exercised over all around him. " He was the only man in the United 
States who possessed the confidence of all (said Thomas Jefferson) 
there was no other one who was considered as anything more than a 
party leader.'' 

Who ever thinks of Washington as a mere pohtician ? Who ever 
associates him with the petty arts and pitiful intrigues of partisan 
office-seekers or partisan office-holders.'' Who ever pictures him can- 
vassing for votes, dealing out proscription, or doling out patronage? 

"No part of my duty," wrote Washington to Governor Bowdoin, in 
a letter, the still unpublished original of which is a precious inherit- 
ance of my own : " No part of my duty will be more delicate, and in 
many instances more unpleasant, than that of nominating and appoint- 
ing persons to office. It will undoubtedly happen that there will be 
several candidates for the same office, whose pretensions, abilities, 
and integrity may be nearly equal, and who will come forward so 
equally supported in every respect as almost to require the aid of 
supernatural intuition to fix upon the right, I shall, however, in all 
events, have the satisfaction to reflect that I entered upon my admin- 
istration unconfined by a single engagement, uninfluenced by any ties 
of blood or friendship, and with the best intention and fullest deter- 
mination to nominate to office those persons only who, upon every 
consideration, were the most deserving, and who would probably exe- 
cute their several functions to the interest and credit of the American 
Union; if such characters could be found by my exploring every 
avenue of information respecting their merits and pretensions that it 
was in my power to obtain." 

And there was as little of the vulgar hero about him, as there was 
of the mere politician. At the head of a victorious army, of which he 



was the idol — an army too often provoked to the very verge of mutiny 
bv the neglect of an inefficient Government — we rind him the con- 
stant counsellor of subordination and submission to the civil authority. 
With the sword of a conqueror at his side, we find him the unceasing 
advocate of peace. Repeatedly invested with more than the power of 
a Roman Dictator, we see him recei\nng that power with reluctance, 
emploving it with the utmost moderation, and eagerly embracing the 
earliest opportunity to resign it. The offer of a crown could not, did 
not. tempt him for an instant from his allegiance to liberty. He 
rejected it with indignation and abhorrence, and proceeded to devote 
all his energies and all his influence, all his popularity and all his 
abilitv. to the establishment of that Republican System, of which he 
was from first to last the uncompromising advocate, and with the ulti- 
mate success of which he believed the best interests of America and 
of the world were inseparably connected. 

It is thus that, in contemplating the character of Washington, the 
offices which he held, the acts which he performed, his successes as a 
statesman, his triumphs as a soldier, almost fade from our sight. It 
is not the Washington of the Delaware or the Brandywnne, of Ger- 
mantown or of Monmouth; it is not Washington, the President of the 
Convention, or the President of the Republic, which we admire. We 
cast our eyes over his life, not to be dazzled by the meteoric luster of 
particular passages, but to behold its whole pathwa}- radiant, radiant 
everywhere, with the true glory of a just, conscientious, consummate 
man I Of him we feel it to be no exaggeration to say that 

" All the ends he aimed at 
Were his Country's, his God's, and Truth's." 

Of him we feel it to be no exaggeration to say that he stands upon 
the page of history the great modern illustration and example of that 
exquisite and Divine precept, which fell from the lips of the dying 
monarch of Israel: 

*• He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God ; 

"And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, 
even a morning without clouds ! '" 

And now, fellow-citizens, it is this incomparable and transcendent 
character, which America, on this occasion, holds up afresh to the 
admiration of mankind. Believing it to be the only character which 



5 

could have carried us safely through our own Revolutionary struggles, 
we present it. especially, this day. to the wistful gaze of convulsed and 
distracted Europe. 

Let us rejoice that our call is anticipated. Washington is no new 
name to Europe. His star has been seen in ever}' sky, and wise men 
everywhere have done it homage. To what other merely human 
being, indeed, has such homage ever before or since been rendered? 

" I have a large acquaintance among the most valuable and exalted 
classes of men,"' wrote Erskine to Washington himself, "but you are 
the only being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence." 

" Illustrious man ! "* said Fox of him, in the British House of Com- 
mons in 1 794, " deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation 
than from the dignitv of his mind: before whom all borrowed orreat- 
ness sinks into insignificance, and all the potentates of Europe become 
little and contemptible.'" 

" Washington is dead I " proclaimed Napoleon, on hearing of the 
event. '' This great man fought against tyranny ; he established the 
liberty of his country. His memory will be always dear to the French 
people, as it will be to all free men of the two worlds." 

"It will be the dutv of the historian and the sage in all a^es."' savs 
Lord Brougham, " to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illus- 
trious man ; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the prog- 
ress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from 
the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington."' 

"One thing is certain," says Guizot — "one thing is certain: that 
which Washington did — the founding of a free government by order 
and peace, at the close of the revolution — no other policy than his 
could have accomplished.'" 

And later, better still : " Efface henceforth the name of Machi- 
avel," said Lamartine, within a few weeks past, in his reply to the 
Italian association — "efface henceforth the name of Machiavel from 
your titles of glory, and substitute for it the name of Washington : 
that is the one which should now be proclaimed: that is the name 
of modern liberty. It is no longer the name of a politician or a con- 
queror that is required ; it is that of a man, the most disinterested, 
the most devoted to the people. This is the man required by liberty. 
The want of the age is a European Washington ! "' 

But, fellow-citizens, while we thus commend the character and 



example of Washington to others, let us not forget to imitate it our- 
selves; and let us not cease to remember and cherish the great 
leading principles of his policy. 

Above all, and before all, in the heart of Washington, was the 
Union of the States ; and no opportunity was ever omitted by him, 
to impress upon his fellow-citizens the profound sense which he 
entertained, of its vital importance at once to their prosperity and 
their liberty. 

In that incomparable Address in which he bade farewell to his 
countrymen at the close of his Presidential service, he touched upon 
many other topics with the earnestness of a sincere conviction. He 
called upon them in solemn terms to "cherish public credit;" to 
" observe good faith and justice towards all nations," avoiding both 
"inveterate antipathies, and passionate attachments" towards any; 
to mitigate and assuage the unquenchable fire of party spirit, "lest, 
instead of warming, it should consume; " to abstain from "character- 
izing parties by geographical distinctions;" "to promote institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge;" to respect and uphold 
" religion and morality, those great pillars of human happiness, those 
firmest props of the duties of men and of citizens." 

But what can exceed, what can equal, the accumulated intensity of 
thought and of expression with which he calls upon them to cling 
to the Union of the States. " It is of infinite moment," says he, in 
language wliich we ought never to be weary of hearing or of repeat- 
ing, "that you should properly estimate the immense value of your 
National Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, immovable attachment to it; accus- 
toming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of 
your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation 
with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a 
suspicion that it can, /;/ any eve7tt, be abandoned ; and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any 
portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
which now link together the various parts." 

The Union, the Union 171 any event, was thus the sentiment of 
Washington. The Union, the Union in any events let it be our 
sentiment this day ! 

Yes, today, fellow-citizens, let us seize this occasion to renew to 



each other our vows of allegiance and devotion to the American i 
Union, and let us recognize in our common title to the name and 1 
the fame of Washington, and in our common veneration for his ' 
example and his advice, the all sufficient centripetal power, which 
shall hold the thick clustering stars of our confederacy in one 
sflorious constellation forever ! Let the column which we are about 
to construct, be at once a pledge and an emblem of perpetual union ! 
Let the foundations be laid, let the superstructure be built up and 
cemented, let each stone be raised and riveted, in a spirit of national 
brotherhood! And may the earliest ray of the rising sun — till that 
sun shall set to rise no more — draw forth from it daily, as from the 
fabled statue of antiquity, a strain of national harmony, which shall 
strike a responsive chord in every heart throughout the Republic ! 

Proceed, then, fellow-citizens, with the work for which you have 
assembled ! Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall ade- 
quately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people to the 
illustrious Father of his country! Build it to the skies; you cannot 
outreach the loftiness of his principles ! Found it upgn the massive 
and eternal rock; you cannot make it more enduring than his fame! 
Construct it of the peerless Parian marble ; you cannot make it 
purer than his life ! Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of 
ancient and of modern art ; you cannot make it more proportionate 
than his character! 

But let not your homage to his memory end here. Think not to 
transfer to a tablet or a column, the tribute which is due from your- 
selves. Just honor to Washington can only be rendered by observing 
his precepts and imitating his example. Siviilitiidine decoreuius. 
He has built his own monument. We, and those who come after us 
in successive generations, are its appointed, its privileged guardians. 
This wide-spread Republic is the true m-onument to Washington. 
Maintain its Independence. Uphold its Constitution. Preserve its 
Union. Defend its Liberty. Let it stand before the world in all its 
original strength and beauty, securing peace, order, equality, and free- 
dom to all within its boundaries, and shedding light, and hope, and 
joy, upon the pathway of human liberty throughout the world ; and 
Washington needs no other monument. Other structures may fitly 
testify our veneration for him ; this, this alone, can adequately illus- 
trate his services to mankind. 



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